Uterine rupture risk low for women after cesarean delivery
Source: Obstetrics & Gynecology 2007; 110: 801-7
Investigating the effects of a prior cesarean delivery on a woman's risk for
uterine rupture in a subsequent term birth.
MedWire News: Women with a singleton term gestation and prior cesarean
delivery have a low risk for uterine rupture and adverse perinatal outcome,
investigators have found.
The researchers report that the adverse event occurs in three out of a 1000
women.
"Counseling for women at term with a prior cesarean delivery for risk of
uterine rupture can be provided as a range from 0 percent to 0.74 percent,
depending on whether they attempt a trial of labor, have an indication for
repeat cesarean delivery, experience labor, or have a cesarean delivery
without labor," they note.
Catherine Spong (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,
Bethesda, Maryland, USA) and colleagues studied 39,117 full-term women who
had a prior cesarean delivery over a 4-year period.
The overall risk for uterine rupture was 0.32 percent and the overall risk
for serious adverse perinatal outcome was 0.27 percent.
The rupture risk for repeat cesarean section ranged from 0.02 percent with
elective cesarean with no indication to 0.12 percent with indicated elective
cesarean.
Women who underwent trial of labor had the highest rate of rupture, at 0.74
percent.
"These data provide physicians and women with pragmatic information for
counseling on the risks of uterine rupture... for the women at term who have
histories of prior cesarean delivery."
